It's strange that Vatican Radio did not report this 'headline' material in its account yesterday of an IEC delegation's meeting with the Pope...
It's definite: The Pope won't be
going to Dublin for the IEC
by Paddy Agnew
March 15, 2012
The Holy Father receives a bowl of Irish shamrock from Sheena Darcy, a member of the International Eucharistic Conference 2012, to be held in June.
ROME - Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin took a walk down memory lane in the Vatican yesterday morning when the archbishop introduced the Pope to an Irish delegation from the International Eucharist Congress.
The meeting took place outside the Vatican’s Teutonic College before the Pope’s Wednesday public audience.
The college is where, many years ago, the then Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr Martin used to meet for Sunday lunch. Chatting in German to the Pope yesterday, however, Archbishop Martin was looking to the future, in particular to this summer’s Eucharistic congress in Ireland.
Months ago, Vatican authorities ruled out a visit by Pope Benedict to Ireland for the congress. Archbishop Martin confirmed this yesterday, saying the Pope will instead make a live televised address to the congress in June.
To mark that event, the Pope both blessed and then rang the Eucharistic Congress bell. In so doing, he joined the ranks of an estimated quarter of a million Irish pilgrims who have so far rung the bell in a symbolic gesture calling for renewal in the Irish church.
The Pope also accepted a pre-St Patrick’s Day bowl of shamrock and a first copy of the congress commemorative medal from the the Irish delegation.
Speaking afterwards, Fr Kevin Doran, the secretary general of the 2012 international congress, said the Pope had rung the bell “vigorously”.
Archbishop Martin added: “To the surprise of its critics, the Eucharistic Congress is taking shape as a genuine moment of renewal in the church . . . and it is being seen as a unique opportunity for renewal of the Christian life.”
Cathedrals, churches and chapels across Ireland will ring their bells for two minutes at noon and 6pm on St Patrick’s Day, both as a symbol of renewal and as a call to prepare for the congress.
The bell, which comes from a Dominican convent in Portstewart, County Derry, has been taken to parishes throughout Ireland over the past year, as a sort of Olympic flame for the Christian message.
The 84-year-old pope’s travel plans for 2012 envisage a trip to Cuba and Mexico, starting next week, and a trip to Lebanon in September. He already has an important engagement in early June, when he is expected to attend World Family Day in Milan.
An idle question: If the friendship between the Pope and Mons. Martin goes back to their days in the Curia together, one wonders all the more why Benedict XVI has not seen fit to make Martin a cardinal so far!
Apropos, I have found Mons. Martin's frequent public sanctimony about the 'failure' of the Vatican and his fellow Irish bishops to be more appropriately pro-active about the sex-abuse problems caused by Irish priests to be unseemly and even offensive. In the interview he gave last year to the New York Times's already Catholic-vindictive Maurenn Dowd, and in other pronouncements since then, he has sounded as though he alone were being conscientious about the sex-abuse crisis while 'the Vatican' and other Irish bishops continue not to take it seriously. Doesn't he realize his statements are a direct affront to Benedict XVI himself and the seriousness with which he has always confronted this issue even before he became Pope?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/03/2012 15:02]